Shielded wire cables typically include an insulated center conductor and a separate insulated shield conductor surrounding the center conductor insulation. The shield conductor may consist of a braided wire mesh, metal foil, or metalized film. The cables typically have a second insulation layer covering the shield conductor. Shielded wire cables have been long used for communications systems, such as in cable television transmission lines. Shielded wire cables are also finding use in high voltage applications in electric and hybrid electric vehicles. When shielded wire cables are spliced together, there is usually a need to electrically connect the shield conductors of the spliced cables as well as the center conductor, in order to maintain electrical continuity of the shield conductors. Interconnecting the shield conductors may be complicated because the shield conductors must be cut back from the spliced ends of the cable in order to join the center conductors. Interconnecting the shield conductors may be further complicated in a one-to-many splicing configuration, sometimes referred to as a Y-splice or H-splice.
A splicing device and a method for splicing shielded wire cables is described in International Patent Publication No. 2014/070851 published May 8, 2014, herein incorporated by reference in it entirely. According to the splicing device 10 shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B, the core conductors 12 of the shielded cables 14 are spliced together by sonically welding them to one another and placed within an inner insulator 16 that insulates the welded core conductors 18. The inner insulator is placed inside a conductive sleeve, i.e. a shield 20, that interconnects conductive ferrules 22 attached to the shield conductors of the shielded cables 14, thereby providing electrical continuity of the shield conductors 14 over the spliced core conductors 18. The shield 20 is placed inside an outer insulator, i.e. a housing 24 that includes cable seals 26 and end caps 28 to retain the seals 26 within the housing 24. This splicing device 10 requires a “fan out” of the core conductors 12 from the welded splice 18. This “fan-out” increases the length of cable required and increase the overall length of the splicing device 10. Therefore, an alternative splicing device and a method of splicing shielded cables that reduces the overall cable and splicing device length remains desired.
At the time of filing this application, the invention described in the instant application and the invention described in International Patent Publication No. 2014/070851 are both owned by Delphi Technologies, Inc.
The subject matter discussed in the background section should not be assumed to be prior art merely as a result of its mention in the background section. Similarly, a problem mentioned in the background section or associated with the subject matter of the background section should not be assumed to have been previously recognized in the prior art. The subject matter in the background section merely represents different approaches, which in and of themselves may also be inventions.